Mary Wallace (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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Question 512: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of gardaí assigned to Laytown Garda station; the opening hours of the station; if there is a 24-hour Garda car working in the area; if the area is without a garda and manned solely from Drogheda for long periods of time during the working week; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9251/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I am informed by the Garda authorities, who are responsible for the detailed allocation of personnel and resources, that the personnel strength of the Laytown Garda station, as at 21 March 2005, was eight.

Laytown Garda station is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 1p.m., Monday to Saturday, and from 12 noon to 1 p.m. on Sundays. When the Garda station is not open, public access call box and call diversion systems are in operation to the district headquarters at Drogheda Garda station.

I am further informed by local Garda management that the area is regularly patrolled by the district detective unit and the divisional traffic unit. When no member is available for duty at Laytown Garda station, the area is covered by personnel from the district headquarters at Drogheda.

I am very pleased that the Government has approved my proposal to increase the strength of the Garda Síochána to 14,000 members on a phased basis, in line with the commitment in An Agreed Programme for Government in this regard. This is a key commitment in the programme for Government and its implementation will significantly strengthen the operational capacity of the force. The Commissioner will now be drawing up plans on how best to distribute and manage these additional resources. In this context, the needs of the Laytown Garda station will be fully considered within the context of the needs of Garda stations throughout the country. The additional resources will be targeted at the areas of greatest need, as is envisaged in the programme for Government. The programme identifies areas with a significant drugs problem and a large number of public order offences, but it will be possible to address other priorities as well, such as the need to very significantly increase the number of gardaí allocated to traffic duties as part of the new Garda traffic corps. Additional gardaí will not be put on administrative duties. They will be put directly into frontline, operational, high-visibility policing. They will have a real impact.